Live: Lo-Fang Glides Onto the Stage at Tribeca Grand Hotel

Related Tags:

The first song on Lo-Fang‘s debut LP Blue Fin, “Look Away”, closed out the at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, presented by Radio.com and 4AD. Matthew Hemerlein all but dissipated in the blue light of the small club located in the lower level hotel as he sung “I will never look away/ when you say” as he played a weeping melody on his violin. You’ve never seen a sadder disco ball spinning.

But it was more the mood that Hemerlein wanted to produce that made the disco ball look more like a melancholic signifier than an actual item to get people dancing and twirling. His music slinks and snakes out in the crowd in the way that his upcoming tour-mate Lorde does, bending and curling it into something new. It’s informed by the hush and by the mood of R&B, but, live especially, Lo Fang plays more at pop. It’s meant to be dangerous, but only in a way that supports the mood, not any actual danger.

He opened with just his paper-thin voice singing “Boris” which repeats the line “Yeah you should get out of town, too” insinuating that he might not be able to control himself. From then out it was hypnotic.